Space Coast’s Economic “Comeback” Profiled Written 5 September 2018

The Orlando Sentinel reports that Florida’s Space Coast is in the midst of a “comeback” that has lifted the area “from the depths of an unemployment crisis at the end of the shuttle program to become one of the premier destinations for aerospace manufacturing and rocket launches in the country.” Kennedy Space Center’s shift from its role as a pure launch site to attracting spacecraft assembly drew the interest of private space companies which “created 8,718 mostly space-related jobs since October 2010, when unemployment rates were at their highest.” Florida’s Space Coast is expected to see 48 launches a year by 2021. In response to a shortage of trained technical workers in the region, the Space Coast Consortium is “moving ahead with an apprenticeship program in which students would work part-time and go to school part-time, while learning the skills that companies require.” 
More Info (Orlando Sentinel)